Travel Planning Tips

A Happy Vacation, Is A Vacation Well Planned

For me, planning is definitely something that comes pretty naturally. It allows me to dream big & really get excited about events in the future. Planning a trip, especially one in another country, was something completely new to me a couple of years ago. However daunting it seemed at the time, all it takes is biting the bullet & following these easy travel planning tips for a dreamy vacation full of fun activities & amazing outfits.

Tip 1: Create A Mood Board

This step, though multi-faceted, may be the most important step in planning a great trip. First, get on Pinterest & start researching travel bloggers who have visited your desired destination. Chances are, if you want to travel there, they have been there too, so why not learn from them? Search for great places to eat, the most “Instagrammable” spots, & things to do. Get out a pen & paper & start making lists of places & ideas that look interesting to you. Pin inspiring photos from these blogs on your destination mood board to look back on & get pumped!

I’m not going to Greece, but here is an example of what my mood board for my imaginary trip to Greece looks like…

Tip 2: Find Your Color Palette

Note my mood board above. See the blues, white, & natural tan colors that stand out? This will now become my color palette when planning my travel outfits. I touched on this in my most recent Q&A, but one of the best ways to avoid over packing on a trip is to stick with a color palette. This makes mixing & matching a breezy so that you can create several outfits from only a few key pieces. I love dressing in the colors of the places I’m going. It makes me feel like I belong to wherever my travel destination may be. You can see outfits & accessories for my pretend trip to Greece in these photos.

Tip 3: Make Reservations

I never like to over book my trips, but I find that if I have something booked & planned for at least every other day, it really helps to create a schedule. Any famous restaurant? Make a reservation, even if it’s for lunch! Book a boat ride, a tour, a cooking class, a hike, or something fun & exciting that is unique to the location you’re visiting.

Tip 4: Research & Plan Some Logistics

Some important things to research before any trip are housing & transportation. Lots of blogs have recommendations as to where to stay, which can be helpful. Something you might want to consider if you’re looking to save a little bit of money is staying just outside the city. We did this in Italy & in Paris & totally loved it. It was nice to have a bit of quiet & calm in the evenings to decompress from the day.

As far as transportation goes, do your research to see whether people recommend using public transportation or car rentals. If you’re thinking about renting a car, don’t forget to take parking fees & even finding parking into consideration. In Paris, we walked & then took the water bus down the river! While we were in Positano, we walked & took the bus up & down the mountain. The point is, every city is different, & most blogs will give good recommendations on these matters.

Le Sirenuse is a very famous hotel in Positano with an iconic restaurant, La Sponda, inside. During my research, I found that if you wanted to go, you needed to make reservations at least a month in advance. The menu is quite expensive, so we made a reservation for lunch & split a couple of small plate items on the menu. The food was amazing, but the experience & the view was something I will never forget.

Tip 5: Study!

Remember that list you made of all the restaurants & places you wanted to visit? Now it’s time to mark all of them on the maps in your phone. Save each location & take a bit of time to study the map. Become familiar with some of the main roads & try to map out how your days will go. This will help so much when you arrive in a city you’ve never been to before.

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If the country you are visiting has a native language other than your own, try setting some goals on Duolingo to brush up on, or learn a little bit of the language. Even just knowing the basics will go a long way.